The arrest in Birmingham of Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee and outspoken critic of Britain’s counterterrorism policies, has sparked a debate about foreign support for Syria’s conflict and accusations that the activist’s detention was politically motivated.

Begg, a 45-year-old British citizen who spent more than three years in Guantanamo before being released in 2005 without charge, was one of four people arrested in a terrorism sweep by West Midlands police Tuesday on suspicion of facilitating terrorism overseas.

Although it is rare to identify detained suspects who are not charged, West Midlands police confirmed Begg’s arrest to local media due to “high public interest.”

“All four arrests are connected,” Detective Superintendent Shaun Edwards told The Guardian, referring to Begg and a 36-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman and her son, aged 20, who were also taken into custody. “They were all preplanned and intelligence-led. There was no immediate risk to public safety.”

He added: “We continue to urge anyone planning to travel to Syria to read the advice issued by the Foreign Office.”

Begg, who was reportedly also questioned on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp, is the high-profile director of the London-based organization CAGE.

Through his advocacy work, he has met with foreign ministers, deputy prime ministers and Britain’s Lord Chancellor. According to a cable released through WikiLeaks, the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg once commended Begg as an ally in the sensitive task of settling Guantanamo detainees whom the Pentagon has cleared for release.

Begg has found himself targeted by Western security services in the past and recently had his passport confiscated. In 2011, he was barred from boarding a direct flight from London to Toronto, where he was scheduled to give a speech. He was told he was being turned back in case the flight was rerouted to the U.S.

Begg had travelled to Syria and other countries where demonstrators had protested their governments in what was known as the “Arab Spring.” Much of his work, he said, had been investigating allegations of torture and rendition by the U.S. and U.K.

In October 2012, he was interviewed by Britain’s spy service, MI5, after writing extensively about his travels to Syria three months earlier. “MI5 was concerned about the possibility of Britons in Syria being radicalized and returning to post a threat to national security,” he wrote. “I told them that Britain had nothing to worry about, especially since British foreign policy, at that time, seemed in favour of the rebels.”

Opposition groups in Syria became increasingly fractured by 2013 with the influx of Al Qaeda militants from Iraq, who joined established rebel groups, but then ignited vicious infighting when their tactics became brutal and they targeted the rebels. The U.K. listed Syria’s Jabhat al Nusra as a terrorist group in July 2013, followed by the U.S. and Canada, making membership in the group a criminal offence.

The fear of returning fighters from Syria is a concern shared by Canadian security services, although there have been no arrests here. It is estimated more than 100 Canadians have gone to fight, both for the Western-backed rebels opposing the regime of President Bashar Assad and Al Qaeda-linked groups.

It is not clear when Begg last travelled to Syria, but his passport was seized in December as he returned from South Africa in a trip that coincided with the funeral for Nelson Mandela.

CAGE released a statement Tuesday evening with the headline, “Moazzam Begg arrested for uncovering Western complicity in rendition and torture?”

“The latest action is designed to ensure that any travel to Syria is deemed suspicious. It follows a concerted campaign of harassment against Muslim individuals and charities involved in providing humanitarian aid to victims of the Syrian crisis,” the statement read.

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